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Michele Claibourn
I am a research director – a senior data scientist, political scientist, community-engaged scholar, and senior administrator – with 20 years of experience teaching, leading, and managing research and data science teams. Recently I’ve been building and leading Research Data Services in the UVA Library.
My own work has turned towards action-based research, using the tools of data science to promote accountable governance, make visible racial and other social inequities, and impact public policy and movement building. I am always interested in opportunities to use my experience and skills towards creating a more economically and socially just world.
Professional Experience
Leadership
Consult with researchers and design research projects with partners seeking to better understand racial disparities and social structures, and to develop a policy response.
Founded StatLab, a data science consulting service for members of the UVA community where I continue to serve as a senior consultant and to mentor student fellows.
Build a new division of the library enhancing our ability to support the growing data science research community at UVA, recruiting, hiring, and managing a team with diverse skills and talents to meet emerging university research needs.
Supervise a team of 10-12 full-time staff, 3-4 graduate fellows, and research teams across mulitple collaborations on a range of research projects, including work on equity and COVID response in the Charlottesville community, racial disparities in the local child welfare systems, forced displacement events with humanitarian partners, and additional community-oriented and library-directed data science efforts.
Director, StatLab and Research Data Services
UVA Library, University of Virginia
N/A
2015 - 2013
- Associate Director, Data Science Institute, 2014-2016 (partial buyout)
Data Scientist
Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service, University of Virginia
N/A
2013 - 2011
Assistant Professor
Department of Politics, University of Virginia
N/A
2011 - 2004
Education
PhD., Political Science
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Madison, WI
2002 - 1996
B.A, Political Science
Rice University
Houston, TX
1993 - 1989
Teaching and Mentoring
Graduate Courses
University of Virginia and University of Oklahoma
N/A
2020 - 2002
- Public Interest Data Lab, Saving Lives with Data, Text as Data, Applied Causal Inference, General Linear Models, Linear Models, Applied Time Series, Mixed-Effects Models/Longitudinal Analysis, Introduction to Statistical Analysis
Undegraduate Courses
University of Virginia and University of Oklahoma
N/A
2020 - 2002
- Project First Gen +, Research Design & Analysis, The Presidency and the Public, Media & Political Communication, Political Pscyology & Decision Making, Citizen Competence in American Democracy, Introduction to American Politics
Select StatLab Workshops
University of Virginia
N/A
2019 - 2013
- Six-part series on Data Science in R, Multiple Imputation, Cluster Analysis, Duration Models, Matching Methods, Mixed-Effects Models,Sentiment Analysis, Topic Modeling, Text Classification, Data Wrangling, Linear Modeling
REU Mentor
School of Data Science, UVA
N/A
2019
Selected Writing and Presentations
- Statistical modeling and data science
- R, RStudio, Shiny
- Data wrangling and visualization
- Stata and SPSS
- Text analytics
- GitHub and reproducibility
- Some Python and SQL
- Qualitative methods
Charlottesville Foster Care Study
Report to the Charlottesville Department of Social Services
N/A
2019
- With Charlotte McClintock and the Public Interest Data Lab
Panel Chair and Moderator
Data & Democracy, School of Data Science Datapalooza, University of Virginia
N/A
2019
Homework and Hubris: Preparing for Community-Engaged Courses
Innovations in Teaching Pedagogy Summit, University of Virginia
N/A
2019
- With Paul Martin
Congressional Earmarks and the Politcs of Representation
Center for the Study of Data and Knowledge, University of Virginia
N/A
2016
Teaching and Writing
20 years of experience teaching statistics and data science methods, applied policy research, and political behavior to undergraduate and graduate students.
Design data workshop series for student and adult learning communities, including recruiting and mentoring instructors, marketing and assessment, and contributing to select topics.
Experienced writer in multiple formats, from university press books and peer-reviewed journal articles, to action-oriented reports for local and state agencies, educational materials, and informal writing.
Skilled in communicating about data, technology, and policy to stakeholders, advocates, and learners.
Citizen Participation and Congressional Responsiveness: New Evidence for Why Participation Matters
Legislative Studies Quarterly 38: 59-82
N/A
2013
- With Paul Martin
Creating Constituencies: Presidential Campaigns, Selective Mobilization, and the Scope of Conflict
Political Behavior 34: 27-56
N/A
2012
- With Paul Martin
Presidential Campaigns and Presidential Accountability
University of Illinois Press, Series on Democracy, Free Enterprise, and the Rule of Law
N/A
2011
Gender Differences in Citizen-Level Democratic Citi-zenship: Evidence from the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems
Presented to the International Political Science Association (2000), the Midwest Political Science Association (2001), and the Conference on Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (2002)
N/A
2002 - 2000
- With Virginia Sapiro
- 2001 Winner, Sophonisba Breckenridge Award for best paper on Women & Politics, Midwest Political Science Association Annual Meeting